House Republican Alliance leader Rep. William O'Brien spoke about the importance of electing pro-liberty candidates.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire (RLCNH) hosted the former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, at another of its political Forums on Saturday, January 23rd at the Grappone Center in Concord.
The program opened with remarks by RLCNH Chairman Jim Forsythe and Rep. William O’Brien (R-Mt. Vernon), a conservative state house member and one of the leaders of the House Republican Alliance. The program also included speeches by two announced Republican candidates for governor, Jack Kimball and Karen Testerman.
Johnson, a popular and nonconformist governor of New Mexico from 1994 to 2002, then spoke and answered questions for about a half hour after his talk. Introduced by Christopher Lawless, a member of the Hopkinton board of selectmen, Gov. Johnson gave the friendly crowd of about 100 attendees an outline of his political and executive political philosophy, touching on many of the most intractable political and social problems in America.
Quoting Thomas Jefferson, Johnson said that America currently needs what he called “an armed rebellion….Let’s arm ourselves with common sense,” he said, “But stop the spending….Let’s not hand future generations a bankrupt nation.” He did not spare either major political party from criticism: “Our leaders on both sides of the aisle are making things worse for us every year, not better,” Johnson told the crowd. “The reality is, they’re all doing us more harm than good.” He followed up with the tongue-in-cheek recommendation that the 535 members of the House of Representatives and Senate each be given a billion dollars in return for a promise to “stay home and do nothing.”
“We’d save trillions,” he said to laughter from the audience.
Speaking of the GOP, Johnson said, “I think the Republicans have gone back to their core, which is stop the spending and lower taxes or no new taxes,” and told the audience, “I choose to work within the Republican party to get it back to its roots.”
The former governor hit on other hot-button political issues of the day. While he is opposed to illegal immigration, he also believes in making it easier for legal immigrants to come to America “who want to work.” The Mexican workers who came into New Mexico during his governorship were “the cream of the crop,” he said. Johnson also declared that he generally supports term limits, supports “unfettered gun rights,” and is “an absolute supporter of school choice and the notion that we should bring competition to public education.”
A political neophyte when he was elected in 1994, Johnson was never involved in politics until he ran for New Mexico governor in a state where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 2-to-1. Yet not only was he elected in 1994, he was re-elected in 1998 by an even higher margin.
During his two terms, Johnson was perhaps best known for his efforts to reform public education. He spoke of his unsuccessful efforts to institute a statewide educational voucher program during his governorship, saying “Imagine if educational entrepreneurs were unleashed to provide a better educational product and service at a lower price.” Unfortunately, however, he noted that educational innovation is discouraged and stifled by the federal Department of Education, “a federal agency that really shouldn’t exist.”
Perhaps most notoriously, Johnson is also known for being the highest-level elected politician in America to call for the legalization of marijuana. “Half of what we spend on law enforcement, half of what we spend on the courts, and half of what we spend on the prisons is drug-related,” he told the audience. Yet the war on drugs is having little effect in reducing drug usage, even while 1.8 million people – equal to the population of New Mexico – are arrested every year for drug-related offenses. “I think that marijuana should be legal. I think that we should adopt harm reduction strategies regarding all other drugs,” he added, comparing the current war on drugs to an earlier war on alcohol during Prohibition. “Ninety percent of the drug problem is prohibition-related,” he said, “not use-related.”
During the question and answer session, one member of the audience noted that Johnson seemed to be responding to the questions clearly and directly “without trying to avoid giving an answer. Do you think you could give lessons to other politicians?” The crowd roared with laughter.
After the program ended at the Grappone Center, the attendees were invited to proceed to The Draft, a sports bar on Main Street in Concord, where the libertarian Reason Foundation was hosting an after-speech opportunity for further discussion with Gov. Johnson. Even more people showed up at The Draft than were at the original venue, and discussion with Johnson continued into the evening.
The general impression of Gov. Johnson seemed to be positive. At one point a questioner, clearly pleased with Gov. Johnson’s political positions and recommendations, asked “What would it take for you to consider moving to New Hampshire?”
Johnson grinned back, saying: “How could you not consider moving to New Hampshire when the license plate says ‘Live Free or Die’?”
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